Pages tagged "energy"

With our state still reeling from the devastating impact of Florence, the world’s most esteemed climate scientists issued a dire warning: we have 12 years to act to avoid catastrophic climate change.

Here in North Carolina, we already know what catastrophe looks like. Florence gave us a taste of it, with unusually intense and destructive rainfall that scientists tell us was a result of climate change.

But if you’re like most Americans, you have moved beyond the tired debate about whether our climate is changing. You want to know how you can help prevent things from getting even worse.

At the October 8th meeting of the Charlotte City Council Environment Committee, council members received updates on the Strategic Energy Action Plan (SEAP) and tree canopy master plan.

Strategic Energy Action Plan

Charlotte Sustainability Director, Rob Phocas, and Assistant City Manager, Kim Eagle, provided an update on the SEAP development process. The timeline for introducing the SEAP has been pushed back one month.

At their September 10th meeting, the Charlotte City Council Environment Committee received an update on the Strategic Energy Action Plan (SEAP) that outlined the timeline and stakeholder engagement process.

This is the sixth article in our 8-part series of weekly blog posts called "The Good, the Bad, the Possibilities". For this series, we are asking local experts three questions to give you a quick overview of recent local trends and solutions with respect to a range of important issues that affect our community's sustainability. This week’s topic is energy, and our featured experts are Mike Davis, Director of Membership for the NC Sustainable Energy Association, and Joel Olsen, CEO of O2 emc.

In a discussion of sustainability, climate change is the elephant in the room. That’s why our July Grow Smart CLT panel discussion was all about energy and climate change.

Over 100 people filled the brew room at Three Spirits Brewery for the panel discussion, where our three panelists shared their perspective of potential solutions to our energy and climate challenges in the Greater Charlotte region, as well as their take-home advice for how attendees can make a difference on this issue. Here’s what they had to say.

On June 25th, the Charlotte City Council unanimously passed the resolution for a “Sustainable and Resilient” Charlotte. This is a comprehensive resolution that calls for the city government to source 100% of its energy used in its own buildings and fleet from zero-carbon sources by 2030. It also creates an action plan for dramatically reducing greenhouse gas emissions in all sectors by 2050.

With this move, Charlotte has taken a major step in the global effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and significantly increase the quality of life for residents by investing in our air quality and growing our economy with green jobs.

At their June 4 meeting, the Charlotte City Council Environment Committee passed a comprehensive resolution that, among many things, calls for the city to source 100% of its energy used in its buildings and fleet from zero carbon sources by 2030.

Did you know that the average American household spends $1,500 on food that ends up uneaten? Sustain Charlotte recently partnered with Livable Meck to co-host a workshop on the topic of food waste and sustainability.

The median Charlotte household spends 29% of their income on housing and another 22% on transportation. For many households, food is their third-highest expense. When a large percentage of that food is wasted, it places an extra financial strain on the household. That means less money is available for other household needs.

Denada Jackson from Solid Waste Services and David Valder from Crown Town Compost educated the audience about the environmental and health impacts of excessive food waste. When food and other organic material decomposes in the landfill, it generates methane, which is 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. However, when food is composted and decomposes in the presence of oxygen, it generates carbon dioxide instead of methane. In other words: a composted banana has a much smaller carbon footprint than a landfilled banana.